Restaurant servers’ risk perceptions and risk communication-related behaviors when serving customers with food allergies in the U.S.

Communication between and among customers with food allergies and foodservice staff has become a concern in the restaurant industry. The purpose of this research was to explore the perceived risks and risk communication-related behaviors of restaurant servers when serving customers with food allergies in the U.S. An online survey instrument was developed based on interviews with full service restaurant managers, pilot-tested, and distributed through an online survey research firm. The results indicated that most servers lacked knowledge about food allergies and perceived that initiating communication and preventing allergic reactions were mostly the responsibilities of customers with food allergies. Servers’ risk reduction and communication behaviors were affected by their perceived severity of food allergy reactions, previous training, sources of media exposure, and the perceived responsibilities of preventing food allergy reactions. Restaurateurs and foodservice educators may use these findings to develop training and strategies for food allergy risk communication in the restaurant industry.     

Food allergy knowledge and training among restaurant employees

As the number of Americans with food allergies continues to increase, restaurant employees should be trained to serve customers who have this condition. This study investigated restaurant employees’ food allergy (FA) knowledge and identified previous FA training, the preferred characteristics of future FA training, and the reasons why some employees were not interested in FA training. A study questionnaire was developed based on interviews with restaurateurs and previous literature and was completed by 229 restaurant employees. The results showed that the participants have some FA knowledge (20.8 ± 3.4 of 28). Many were not trained in FA but expressed interest in attending such training. The participants expressed a preference for self-paced training programs that use real-world examples and simple language. Some reasons for not being interested in attending FA training included “time consuming”, “not beneficial”, and “boring”. The restaurant industry benefits from the findings of this study by gaining a greater understanding of the current food allergy knowledge and training of restaurant employees.     

Restaurant Authenticity: Factors That Influence Perception,Satisfaction and Return Intentions at Regional American-Style Restaurants

This study assessed perceptions of authenticity and its relationship with satisfaction and return intentions for regional American-style restaurants using randomly selected customers at a Southern-style country-cooking restaurant. Results showed that personal and restaurant attributes influenced perceived restaurant authenticity, with a restaurant’s food and beverage and local community marketing having the strongest influences. Results also showed that perceived authenticity influences restaurant satisfaction and return intentions. Findings suggest restaurants should ensure their food and beverage meets customers’ authenticity standards and that they should promote their community connections in order to enhance diner loyalty and return patronage. Implications are discussed in detail.     

Should I book another hotel? The effects of sickness and ethnicity on customer brand loyalty and positive word of mouth

Sickness presenteeism is working despite feeling sick. Although presenteeism prevails across different job sectors, few studies have focused on how it affects the hospitality sector. This study applied a quasi-experimental method to investigate how sick employees’ presence affects customers’ fear of contagion and, consequently, customer brand loyalty (i.e., return intentions) and positive word of mouth (i.e., recommendation intentions) due to perceived service failure. The effects of ethnicity on customers’ intentions were also explored. Data were collected from 581 participants. The results reveal that, when hospitality employees appear to be sick, customers have weaker recommendation and return intentions compared to when employees do not show any sickness. In addition, our results show that due to perceived ethnic dissimilarity, customers do not tend to withdraw from non-similar sick employees, not showing weaker recommendation and rebooking intentions toward tourist accommodations. This research enriches the very well stablished literature on consumer-brand relationships, sickness presenteeism and social cognition, as well as furthering practice by showing that sickness presenteeism, when correctly managed, can generate organizational advantages.     

Speaking of allergies: Communication challenges for restaurant staff and customers

Managing customer allergies is an essential job task for restaurant workers. The present study catalogs common work features and challenges involved in the verbal communication of food allergies. Allergy communication is approached as a form of risk communication occurring within a socio-technical work system. Critical incidents and qualitative surveys of restaurant staff (n = 138; 3400 statements), along with qualitative surveys of customers with allergies (n = 61; 795 statements), are subject to thematic analysis to examine those practices most likely to improve customer safety and subjective experience. Key findings suggest improved outcomes when staff prompt customers to disclose their allergies at first contact, when fewer staff are involved in allergy communication and management, and when double-checking/check-ins are integrated throughout the communication process. These can serve as provisional best practice recommendations, and should be studied more thoroughly in combination with written communication strategies, restaurant resources, and environmental demands.     

Mr. Potato Head fights food waste: The effect of anthropomorphism in promoting ugly food

Ugly food refers to vegetables and fruits that are oddly shaped, colored, or sized. Ugly food is typically thrown out, which represents a significant amount of food waste. This study aimed to identify effective ways to promote ugly food consumption by analyzing the relative persuasiveness of advertisements in terms of three variables: anthropomorphism (anthropomorphic vs. non-anthropomorphic), temporal framing (near future vs. distant future), and message framing (loss vs. gain). The results showed that anthropomorphism and distant future messages have a significant positive influence on consumers’ purchase intentions toward ugly food. This finding confirms that there is a significant matching effect between temporal distance and loss-/gain-framed messages on consumers’ purchase intentions toward ugly food. Additionally, this matching effect between temporal distance and loss-/gain-framed messages varies depending on the level of anthropomorphism present in the messages. The study also provides implications for effective marketing communication in the context of ugly food promotion in the foodservice industry.     

Social Servicescape: The Impact of Social Factors on Restaurant Image and Behavioral Intentions

While most previous research has focused on the physical service environment, research on the social aspect in the service environment is scant. This study examined how social factors (employees, other customers, social crowding, and rapport) in the service environment influence restaurant image and customers’ behavioral intentions. Based on past research, a theoretical framework was developed and the data collected from online surveys was analyzed through structural equation modeling. Our findings, based on a survey of 500 participants, suggest that social factors influence restaurant image and, consequently, behavioral intentions.     

Variety seeking in restaurant choice and its drivers

The purpose of this study was to identify variety drivers in restaurant settings and to examine their influence on diners’ variety seeking intentions. More specifically, this study considered perceived quality, customer satisfaction, overall boredom, and boredom with restaurant attributes as variety drivers and examined how they affect customers’ variety seeking intentions. Further, this study investigated the moderating role of personality characteristics and overall loyalty level toward a restaurant in the relationship between variety drivers and variety seeking intentions. The results showed that atmospheric quality, overall boredom, and boredom with atmospheric attributes significantly influence variety seeking intentions. Personality characteristics reflecting optimal stimulation level also played a moderating role in the relationship between overall boredom and variety seeking intentions. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided in the conclusion.     

An examination of restaurant employees’ work-life outlook: The influence of support systems during COVID-19

The main objective of this research paper is to examine the influence of perceived support (i.e., organizational support and social support) on life satisfaction (i.e., current and anticipated life satisfaction), which is hypothesized to increase restaurant employees’ loyalty organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and decrease their intentions to leave the restaurant industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the moderating effects of employees’ resilience and employment status are also examined. Analyzing the responses of 609 restaurant employees using structural equation modeling (SEM), findings revealed that all direct effects were supported, except for the effect of anticipated life satisfaction on intention to leave the restaurant industry. Lastly, the moderating role of resilience in the relationships between current life satisfaction and restaurant employees’ loyalty OCB and intentions to leave the industry was confirmed. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in detail.     

Applying Service Profit Chain model to the Korean restaurant industry

The purpose of this study is to empirically determine the relationship between employees’ constructs such as internal service quality, service ability, employee satisfaction, and organizational commitment, and customers’ constructs such as perceived value, customer satisfaction, customer trust, and loyalty. This relationship was studied by applying the Service Profit Chain model to the Korean restaurant industry. Results show that internal service quality has a significant effect on service ability, and teamwork/communication has a significant effect on employee satisfaction. Employees’ organizational commitment has a significant direct effect on the value perceived by customers. Ultimately, there is an indirect influential relationship between employees’ and customers’ constructs. Implications of these results are discussed, and possible limitations of the study are addressed.     

The influence of restaurant co-workers’ perceived warmth and competence on employees’ turnover intentions: The mediating role of job attitudes

The current study examines the influence of co-workers’ perceived warmth and competence on employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions in a casual dining restaurant setting. The warmth and competence dimensions represent two fundamental social dimensions that people often use to evaluate other individuals or groups. The current findings determined that co-workers’ perceived warmth and competence had significant effects on employees’ job satisfaction, which in turn improved their organizational commitment.Furthermore, job satisfaction and organizational commitment mediated the relationships between co-workers’ perceived warmth and competence and employees’ turnover intentions. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Restaurant chain’s corporate social responsibility messages on social networking sites: The role of social distance

Considering the large influence of social media on the restaurant chain industry, finding effective communication strategies to interact with customers is critically important. The purpose of the study was to investigate how restaurant chain’s CSR messages on social networking sites affect brand value and social distance. Data were collected from 403 social media users with a dining experience at a U.S. restaurant chain. A two-step structural equation model and a two by two between-subject experimental design were conducted for this study. The perception of CSR messages on SNS positively affects customer’s social distance and the restaurant’s brand credibility, and consequently enhance the brand equity. Restaurant chain’s concrete (vs. abstract) CSR messages on SNS has a positive influence on customers’ brand equity when their social distance is close (vs. distant). The study highlights the importance of shortening social distance to enhance brand equity when developing CSR messages on SNS.     

The information quality and source credibility matter in customers’ evaluation toward food O2O commerce

This study examines customer’s decision making when purchasing food product through O2O commerce applying the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and the technology acceptance model (TAM). Further, this research investigates which information processing path, central route (information quality) or peripheral route (source credibility), is related to purchase frequency. Results of the data analysis demonstrate (1) the positive relationship between information quality, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use; (2) the significant relationship between source credibility, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use; (3) the significant influence of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on customer trust; and (4) the significant relationships among customer trust, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. In addition, customers with high purchase frequency tend to process messages via the central route, while customers with low purchase frequency focus on the peripheral route. These findings provide theoretical and managerial implications that contribute to O2O commerce marketing.     

Restaurant experiences triggering positive electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) motivations

This study empirically examined which restaurant experiences trigger customers to engage in positive electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), where the quality of restaurant service (food quality, service quality, atmosphere, and price fairness) is the antecedent of eWOM communication. The results of this study suggest that (1) restaurants’ food quality positively influences customers to spread positive eWOM, motivated by their desire to help the restaurant; (2) satisfactory restaurant experiences with service employees triggered positive eWOM, motivated by the need to help the restaurant or to express positive feelings; (3) a superior atmosphere in restaurants elicited positive eWOM motivated by a concern for others; and (4) price fairness in restaurants did not drive restaurant customers toward eWOM. Additionally, this study investigated sources of positive eWOM and types of eWOM media used among opinion leaders in the restaurant industry to enhance the practical implications of the study regarding online marketing. Because of the small number of opinion leaders in the study sample, specifying who the opinion leaders were (the source of eWOM) and the type of eWOM media the opinion leaders used had no effect. Further discussion and implications are provided in the text.     

The antecedents and outcomes of food safety motivators for restaurant workers: An expectancy framework

Individual food handlers’ motivations to comply with established guidelines in restaurant organizations were explored in this national study of 755 restaurant managers and employees in the United States. Using expectancy theory, workers’ motivations to comply with stated food safety regulations were measured. Overall, the results indicated support for expectancy theory and the proposed extension of this framework to restaurant employees’ perceptions of food safety and sanitation. However, there was no support in the model for restaurant workers to follow food sanitation regulations in the relationship between extrinsic valence and motivation. It was determined that this relationship is moderated by the length of time the employee has worked in the restaurant industry.     

Anticipated guilt and pleasure in a healthy food consumption context

Recognizing the increasing importance of healthiness in food-related businesses, this study attempted to investigate the role of consumers’ affective responses in a healthy food consumption context. To achieve its objectives, this study incorporated anticipated emotional constructs in a decision-making model and investigated the relationships among perceived healthiness, anticipated guilt and pleasure, and behavioral intentions (e.g., purchase, spreading positive word-of-mouth, and recommending the food) in a quick service restaurant setting. The results of this study suggest that anticipated pleasure positively influenced behavioral intentions and mediated the relationship between perceived healthiness and behavioral intentions, whereas anticipated guilt did not influence behavioral intentions. Additionally, this study investigated the moderating role of dietary concerns in consumers’ decision-making processes and found that the low dietary concerns group was more susceptible to anticipated pleasure compared to the high dietary concerns group. Further findings and implications are provided in the main body of the paper.     

Does offering an organic food menu help restaurants excel in competition? An examination of diners’ decision-making

This study aims to examine whether the presence of an organic food menu can positively influence diners’ decision-making. A 3 (restaurant segment: quick service vs. casual dining vs. fine dining) by 2 (price discrepancy between competing restaurants: small vs. large) scenario-based experiment was conducted with 405 U.S. consumers. MANCOVA results indicate that using organic ingredients offers a greater advantage for the quick-service segment regarding perceived food quality, attitudes towards the restaurant, and willingness to select, compared to casual and fine dining segments. The magnitude of a premium price of organic ingredients negatively influences such advantage in the process of consumers’ decision-making. When a large (vs. small) premium price is charged for using organic ingredients, customers’ preferences for the restaurant (over its rival) significantly drops to such an extent that customers are more willing to choose the competitor (i.e., rival restaurant with a conventional menu). Discussions and implications are further elaborated.